Miami Attendance Proves Value of On-Campus Stadiums

Oct 13, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Hurricanes cheerleader run before the team arrives at Sun Life Stadium before a game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Miami Hurricanes. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

It’s time for Twittervention on Miami attendance. Sun Life Stadium is dotted with empty, orange seats. We get it. Interest in the program has waned since it fell from the elite heights it reached in the early-to-mid 2000s, and it’s plainly evident.

Know why it’s evident? Because every time Miami has a home game, dozens of Twit pics showing empty seats and variations on the exact same joke flood college football fans’ Twitter timelines. One prominent writer used it as an indictment of the ACC, which requires tremendous cognitive dissonance since Vanderbilt and Baylor aren’t a litmus test on interest in the SEC and Big 12.

But what the vast emptiness of Sun Life Stadium does prove (aside from the power of front running) is the value of on-campus stadiums. Sun Life Stadium is 21 miles from The U’s Coral Gables campus. It was rare I traveled the 42 miles Miami students would be required to trek round-trip in a week, let alone a day.

At FBS member universities, college football is a critical component of the campus experience. Removing that element from campus dampers some of the atmosphere, and has even greater impact on the football atmosphere. Miami also doesn’t have the luxury of playing its home-away-from-home games in a venerable, college football monument like UCLA. No road tripper says, “I have to see a game in Sun Life Stadium before I die.”

And even with the Rose Bowl, UCLA is notorious in Pac-12 country for student attendance being hit-or-miss. Such is the pitfall of playing a half-hour (more with traffic) drive from campus.

An integral part of the Miami legacy is the win streak it established through the 1980s and 1990s at the Orange Bowl. That home field advantage and racuous audience captured in that old stadium helped define the Hurricanes. The Orange Bowl was not on campus, but a more manageable 5 miles from Coral Gables. It was also a college stadium. It might not be so simple as If you build it, they will come — Al Golden has to get the Hurricanes back to a winning routine to attract some of the cling-ons of any fan base. There are also challenges with building a stadium on campus, exacerbated by the university’s transgressions with the NCAA.

Until the university finds a way to move closer to campus, the stadium will remain empty. And you’ll know it’s kickoff in Miami from all the hacky jokes.